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This was good, not the best horror comic I've ever read, not even the best horror comic from last week (Rachel Rising, OBV), but pretty good nonetheless. I liked the art a lot, but the story itself failed to completely pull me in. The creators feeling the need to tell me how special and unique their comic is was a bit off-putting as well. I would have liked it more if there was a possibility of the orphan hobo kid being eaten at the end.

John Snow wrote:This was good, not the best horror comic I've ever read, not even the best horror comic from last week (Rachel Rising, OBV), but pretty good nonetheless. I liked the art a lot, but the story itself failed to completely pull me in. The creators feeling the need to tell me how special and unique their comic is was a bit off-putting as well. I would have liked it more if there was a possibility of the orphan hobo kid being eaten at the end.

SEVERED #1 is a slow-paced but atmospheric opening issue. The book begins in the late 1950s, with an old, one-armed man receiving a mysterious note. His family asks him what's inside and he begins to tell them about his childhood during World War I. The rest of this issue is a flashback of a 12-year-old boy who runs away from home to ride the rails and play music with hobos.

Writers Scott Snyder and Scott Tuft do a great job of introducing characters and filling the story with odd little details that somehow make the issue both more interesting and more believable. In the 1916 flashback, for example, there is a brief discussion on light bulbs, which would have been, apparently, still a novel technology back then. I'm not sure if light bulbs will be somehow important to the rest of the story -- I doubt it -- but I appreciate these extra details that Snyder and Tuft add to the story. It gives readers a better sense of what things were like in 1916, and makes it seem such a distant, almost ancient time compared to today's overstimulated, completely electronic world.

This is, ultimately, a horror story, and Attila Futaki produces exceptional illustrations that have the same feel as Bernie Wrightson's horror work. Futaki, like Wrightson, does not use crisp, ruled lines. Everything is either rough or wilted looking. Nothing is healthy, new, or strong. Futaki also includes rich details in every panel -- the old country houses, the gnarled trees, the primitive vehicles -- and creates a vivid, early modern world. The muted colors give each panel the look of sepia-tone photos, which only makes the story feel older.

SEVERED #1 is not a page-turner. You will not be reading rapidly to see what happens next. Rather, you will slowly move from panel to panel, reading the strange, dated conversations and taking in the beautiful art. Overall, I like the pace and style of this issue, and I look forward to seeing where this story goes next.

Snyder is firing on all cylanders right now. His style of story telling is so strong it can't NOT draw the reader in. The art is top notch with some minor issues that do not distract from the story or the pretty pictures at all. I'm sold on this one. I don't think I'm going to wait for the trade.

Story: 9Art: 9My Score: 9

Max Blyss wrote:Months and months and months and the whole thing is still just an intersection at Dipshit Lane & Chip on my Shoulder Ave.

You're the one who said it was good and pretty good in that order. Not me.

You're also the one who said that your review didn't have a six in it, which it did.

If you feel that good or pretty good deserves a six on the story, then you're entitled to that. I could care less. I've just never seen anyone describe a six on anything other than okay.

If you had read more than the first sentence and then skipped to the score, you would have seen that I had gone on to say that the story failed to hold my interest and that I wished death upon the protagonist.

I would elaborate on how comics are more than just the story being told and can be enjoyed on more than just that simplistic level, but it would take too much time to type out on my phone and you are boring. Personal attacks. :rolleyes: